Abstract

Background and objectives: Congestive heart failure (CHF) continues to be a major clinical and public health problem with shift in etiology from hypertension, valvular heart disease to ischaemia. Carvedilol is a non-selective beta-blocker with α1- blocking activity. In the present study, the efficacy of Carvedilol, to increase the baseline left ventricular ejection fraction and heart rate, effect on blood pressure was assessed. Materials and methods: A total number of 40 patients were enrolled in the study, 20 were heart failure patients and 20 were age-sex matched healthy controls. After the study period of 24 weeks, the efficacy of carvedilol in reducing heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and left ventricular ejection fraction were evaluated. Results: Carvedilol when given in low doses, was effective in increasing left ventricular ejection fraction from (31.73 ± 2.28 %) to (40.85 ± 7.51 %) with p< 0.0001, decreasing heart rate from (80.95 ± 5.10) to (71.50 ± 6.11) beats / min, with p<0.0001, and reducing systolic blood pressure 5.25 ± 4.99 with p<0.0006and diastolic blood pressure 6.50 ± 6.71 with p<0.4077 Conclusion: Carvedilol is a non-selective beta-blocker with α1- blocking activity and when given in low doses, increases cardiac ejection fraction, decreases ventricular mass, improves the shape of the ventricle, and reduces systolic and diastolic volumes. In conclusion from our study, Carvedilol increases  the baseline left ventricular ejection fraction and heart rate  more significantly in the patients than in the controls.

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